GameStop Pre-Owned Quality Control

Let’s start off by saying that I am a cheap skate when it comes to buying games for my consoles. I’ve got some pretty good will power not buy a game when it first gets release. The primary reasons behind this is a) I don’t have time to always play games b) some games are play once through and $50-$60 for a game you’re going to play once is a waste.

So I love getting a bargain when it comes to buying my games. And when GameStop has one of their buy 2 get 1 free sales, I’m like a kid on Christmas day. I’ll hold on to a GameStop giftcard for months until one of those sales come up. But every single time I buy pre-owned games from GameStop I get irritated and here’s why.

GameStop Pre-Owned Quality Control

Apparently at a store level quality control on pre-owned quality control is non-existent. I’m sure every month each GameStop buys pre-owned games from consumers by the dozens, if not hundreds.

What makes things irritating is that GameStop will pay you pennies on the dollar for your game.Turn around and resell your game for 5-10 times what they payed you for it. I understand this is part of business and making money. But can these people not take all of 30 seconds to check the quality of a disc? Or clean a disc that has spots or junk stuck on it.

Today, 11/21/2012 I went to GameStop. They were having their buy 2 get 1 free sale. I purchased a total of 9 games. And here’s the breakdown of what I got.

Pre-Owned Breakdown

Raven Squad – Looked descent, just needed cleaning.

Time Shift – Ton of light scatches and in need of cleaning.

Gears of War 2 – Heavy scratches on half of the disc.

Battlefield Bad Company 2 – By far the worst out of the bunch. Has light and heavy scratches over the entire surface of the disc. Almost looks like someone took sandpaper to it.

Overlord – Looked descent, just needed cleaning.

Dante’s Inferno – Has something stuck on it and scratch or mars going from the inner to outer, not radially around the disc.

Gears of War – Light to medium scratches on various parts of the disc.

Taking photos of the discs with my smart phone doesn’t really show the details you see in person. But here are a couple of photos. You can click on the photos to get a better view.

What to do?

I know GameStop has this massive facility in Texas for the purpose of reconditioning games. I believe the problem lies at the store level. Or maybe it’s GameStop’s policy. But what I perceive is happening is that someone sells a game to GameStop. The store clerk checks to make sure the game is in the case. Said game then goes in a pile of games to get priced and added to the inventory. And then the game goes out to the shelf. The quality control portion of this process is left to the consumer. Only if they manage to try the game before the return policy has run out and find they have a bad game, and return the game. Then and only then would the disc be sent in for reconditioning.

So do yourself a favor, while you are there at the store. Check each and every pre-owned game you are purchasing. If it looks bad to you demand another copy! There’s really no reason for games to look like it was used as a drink coaster to make it to your hand.

Have you bought a bum pre-owned game from GameStop? Tell us about your storied in the comments below.